10. Mariah Carey “Vanishing”
Was watching the BET Honors on YouTube since I missed all of the telecasts. I was thinking if I was an artist what song I’d sing for her. It came down to this simple but powerful ballad from her debut album and 1995’s “Underneath the Stars”. This obviously won out.

9. The Black Keys “Money Maker”
Earlier this week I was on a serious “El Camino” kick, I like pretty much every song, but this Doors-ish number became another favorite.
(Sorry — or maybe not sorry — but I can only find Live versions of this song right now!)

8. Animal Collective “My Girls”
My #2 Single of 2009, I was listening to Panda Bear’s “Tomboy” album randomly and had to go to “Merriweather Post Pavilion” and hear this totally mesmerizing and psychedelic track one more ‘gain.

7. Rihanna feat. Calvin Harris “We Found Love”
Ugh. This song is STILL so incredibly basic to me, but … that build up to the hook ALWAYS gives me life.

6. How To Dress Well “Ready for the World”
Moody Indie R&B! It had been a minute since I listened to How To Dress Well’s album “Love Remains” so I re-visited it, and it’s only right that this song makes the list this week because it’s the song that made me intrigued to check it out in the first place.

5. U2 “Sunday Bloody Sunday”
I probably need to up my U2 collection. I have only one full album by them in my iTunes and only a few songs from their “Greatest Hits” collection. Meanwhile, this song had me rocking the other day at work.

4. Panda Bear “Slow Motion”
I remember first hearing the album “Tomboy” and thinking… ‘wow! they are so biting off of animal collective’, turns out it’s just the same guy under a different moniker. Knowing that the album a lot more enjoyable and this Hip Hop influenced chant-y Indie/Electro/Psychadellic track is a clear stand out on the album.

3. Prince & The Revolution “Computer Blue”
As I prepare for part two of my Prince Discography Review (part one here), been listening to a lot of Prince late this week. And this wasn’t necessarily one of my favorites growing up… but over the past few years has become a stand out. It’s all about that guitar break down in the middle.

2. The Notorious B.I.G. “One More Chance/ Stay with Me”
It’s the anniversary of Biggie’s death today, (thanks Twitter for reminding me)… so of course I had to show some love today. I mean “Notorious Thugs” is his best song ever… but I just remember getting in trouble over this song. I ran up a pretty high phone bill requesting this song on The Box (y’all remember that!?). I still love it though, this is classic Hip Hop.

1. Brandy & Monica “It All Belongs To Me”
When I first heard this song about a month ago, I thought it was cute but it left a bit of a lukewarm impression. The music video was released this week, and even though it’s a simple standard video it just made me appreciate the song a little more, and now I’m hooked!

>Now, you may not know that I posted my Grammy PredictionBlog literally 45 minutes before the nominations were announced. I was on Twitter and Grammy.com’s Live blog getting the announcements of who was nominated and who was snubbed. The reaction I had when the full list of nominations was finally available on the Grammy website was WTF!? Literally.

I’m not mad, not even all that surprised, just a little confused. Like last year, when GaGa, Beyoncé, Black Eyed Peas and Taylor Swift were up for Album of the Year it just felt like the Grammy voters were choosing the most popular and best selling artists. This year with the Big 4 including a diverse group of artists like Cee-Lo Green, Ray Lamontagne, Katy Perry and Bruno Mars it’s not clear what the Grammy voters were thinking. I’ll pick the nominees apart in another post, but let’s first talk about how I was pretty spot on predicting which artists would be nominated, just not too spot on with the actual categories they’d be nominated for.

Of course Eminem was the King of nominations scoring 11. He got the Album, Single and Record of the Year nods I predicted and 6 of his nominations are in the Hip Hop category (competing against himself in two of those categories) which I also predicted. The remaining two nods are for Short Form Music Video for “Love the Way You Lie” (really???) and for his feature work in “Airplanes Part II” by B.o.B. Unfortunately he is really the only Hip Hop artist to dominate the Big 4 categories this year, so that goes against my earlier prediction that Drake, Jay-Z and the aforementioned B.o.B. would be big contenders. Jay-Z only nabbed a Record of the Year nomination for his “Empire State of Mind” with Alicia Keys, same story for B.o.B. who finds himself in the same category with “Nothing On You” with Bruno Mars. And Drake’s only Big 4 nomination comes in the form of Best New Artist, in fact, despite having one of the best albums of the year Drake is only up for 4 total awards.

Lady GaGa ended up being a nominations leader again this year, and given the artists that were snubbed for Album of the Year (Jay-Z, Drake, Robyn, Sade, Rihanna, Janelle Monáe) it’s really upsetting that her 8 track EP “The Fame Monster” is actually up for that category. That undeserved nomination brings this years total to 6 nominations, though she missed out on Song and Record of the Year “Bad Romance”, “Telephone” and oddly enough “Dance in the Dark” are up for multiple nominations. Katy Perry also ended up doing better than I thought, as she did grab a nomination for Album of the Year even when I said it probably wouldn’t happen. Her “Teenage Dream” album helped to score her 4 nominations, not in the Song of the Year or Record of the Year category, but I was correct about the title track nabbing Pop Vocal Performance and “California Gurls” up for Pop Collaboration.

Country group Lady Antebellum also did well for themselves as I predicted. They pulled 6 total nominations, 3 coming from the Big 4 categories Album of the Year, Record and Song of the Year for “Need You Now”, all of which I accurately predicted. Of the most nominated acts this year, the only one who surprised me was Bruno Mars who is also competing in 6 categories. His debut album “Doo-Wops and Hooligans” missed the cut-off for this year, but his singles feature work and writing made him a leading competitor. Another big surprise, the song he wrote for Cee-Lo Green “F**k You” (or “Forget You” the censored, radio friendly version) is up for both Song and Record of the Year.

And since I’m giving my honest reactions, maybe that song didn’t deserve it’s nods. It’s a fun song, but it didn’t make too many waves on the charts so I’m really surprised it’s up for such high honors.

Arcade Fire did score a nod for Album of the Year as I predicted for “The Suburbs”, but weren’t nominee leaders this year with only two other nominations. Another big surprise is the virtual snubbing of Sade, who only scored two nominations Pop Vocal, Group (“Babyfather”) and R&B Vocal, Group (“Soldier of Love”). Maybe it’s because their album was released so early in the year, voters forgot about them, but it was really a shock to see them only in two categories (however, looking back, they’ve never been nominee leaders, generally only getting one nomination per album).

Most of the other acts I mentioned as shoe-in’s in my Nominee Prediction post were named. Vampire Weekend, The Black Keys, Ludacris, Gorillaz, Young Jeezy, Nicki Minaj, Train and Janelle Monae are all up for at least one award.

And even some picks from my “For Your Consideration” portion are up. Very pleased by the nominations for Broken Bells, Robyn, Maroon 5, Big Boi, and Adam Lambert. And I was very pleased to see John Legend and The Roots‘ collaboration album “Wake Up” nominated in 5 categories, but the homage to the old school of R&B isn’t really a surprising choice.

Which leads to what I think are the biggest snubs. Actually, most of the artists I wanted to be nominated got at least one. However I feel a lot of them were shortchanged in categories they were more deserving of. For instance, Jay-Z and Drake should have definitely been up for Album of the Year. Katy Perry, who maybe got more than she deserves as far as nominations, should have gotten more love for her excellent pop Single “Teenage Dream”. And even though I personally like “Nothin on You” more than “Airplanes” by B.O.B., I feel like the latter is way more Grammy friendly and a great convergence of Hip Hop meets Rock with Hayley Williams on board.

Rihanna scored 4 nominations, 3 coming from Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” (the other for Dance Single “Only Girl (In the World)”) but to see zero nominations for her superior “Rated R” album, and none for her deliciously pop single “Rude Boy” is surprising. Another great Pop single that was snubbed was Neon Trees‘ “Animal”, which should have at least been up for Pop Vocal, Group if not more.

I also feel that Christina Aguilera should have been up for something, if only Pop Vocal, Female for her second single “You Lost Me” over Beyoncé‘s live rendition of “Halo” (which she won Pop Vocal, Female for last year).

Two terrible omissions came in the R&B category where Fantasia and Monica‘s subpar albums are nominated instead of Erykah Badu‘s “New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)” and Toni Braxton‘s “Pulse”. And while Janelle Monáe scored two nominations, she was probably the biggest snub in the New Artist category (Justin Bieber got nominated over her). I’m also really surprised that Trey Songz is not up for anything this year, and especially not for his addictive single with Nicki Minaj (who also I was surprised only scored one nomination after more than a dozen collaborations the past year) “Bottoms Up”.

And finally in the Dance categories, which is relegated to two categories (Dance Recording and Electronic/Dance Album) and only 10 spots, Kelly Rowland should have definitely knocked one of them out for Dance Recording with probably the best true Dance single of 2010 “Commander”, while Kelis switched up her whole style on the stellar Dance album “Flesh Tone”. Also it was very strange to not see one of the most critically acclaimed Electronic albums LCD Soundsystem‘s “This is Happening” not up for anything.

So those are my very overdue reactions, and sometime next week (before my Birthday on Thursday) I’ll post my Predictions for Winners as the Grammy’s are just 9 days away.

Honestly, 2010 wasn’t such a horrible year in Music.Of course alot of the best stuff went under the radar, but even some of the more successful Pop stuff was surprisingly good and inventive. Here is my fairly positive assessment of the Year in Music for 2010, and hopes for 2011.

> > ARTIST OF THE YEAR

1. Young Money — Drake, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne knew he was going to be gone (till November as he said on Drake’s “Miss Me”), but in order to keep getting his money he formed the Young Money mafia and groomed two of the biggest Hip Hop stars of the Year. Even before Drake and Nicki Minaj took off with impressive numbers for their debut albums, the Young Money clique had the biggest Hip Hop hit of the year with “Bed Rock” (because let’s be real “Love the Way You Lie” is a POP song) and a solid selling and actually surprisingly good self titled album. Drake, who was buzzed about all last year, started things off with two huge summer singles and over 500k in first week sales of his debut “Thank Me Later”. All the while Nicki Minaj was making a big name for herself being featured on most of the bigger releases of the year (Usher, Christina Aguilera, Ludacris). She’s ending the year with her debut album “Pink Friday” selling nearly a million copies in a little over a month and quickly becoming a household name. Once Wayne himself got out of prison, he was already sitting with another #1 by releasing an EP “I Am Not a Human Being”. Proof that when his next full length album comes out he’s going to be a force to reckoned with. Now if only anybody could remember the names of the other Young Money crew members, we’ll see how things works out for them next year, if at all.

2. Katy Perry
3. Eminem
4. Lady GaGa
5. Kanye West

> > Artists who Deserves More Shine

1. Robyn
The swedish Electro Queen delivers both radio accessible Dance hits, as well as authentic and original Electronic music. There’s no reason why “Hang with Me” or “Stars 4 Ever” couldn’t be huge stateside, but it’s possible that her sound and lyrics are watered down and simple enough, sad really.

2. Janelle Monáe
Her full length debut album “TheArchAndroid” shows an artist who loves music and it’s history and doesn’t so much care for what’s popular, but incorporating different sounds and making interesting music. Of course radio would shun her, but critics (namely those who vote for the Grammys) should be fawning all over her. There’s still a shot she will emerge and be more widely respected for her talents.

3. Mr Hudson
His 2009 UK release “Straight No Chaser” is still one of my favorite albums in recent years, and I was hoping his guest appearance on Jay-Z’s hit single “Young Forever” would amp up his promotion in the US. Somehow he’s been forgotten again, maybe he’ll just have to settle for moderate success though he should be huge.

> > FAIL of the Year Award

Lil Kim
When Rihanna first came out it was clear her label was molding her to be the new Beyonce in style, but Beyonce had only glowing things to say about her because obviously she was an inspiration to the than new artist. When Drake came out his style of the non-posing Hip Hop rapper was similar to Kanye’s early work, and Kanye never publicly demanded Drake pay his respects to him, he actually worked with him. Simply because both those artists are established and aren’t threatened by any newbies. Unfortunately Lil Kim obviously felt threatened by up and coming Hip Hop star Nicki Minaj which brings us to the biggest FAIL of the year.
Kim’s first initial argument about Nicki was a FAIL because when she asked her to “pay homage”, Nicki had already done so in interviews and photo shoots. When Nicki said nothing against the Queen Bee, Kim just kept at it doing various radio interviews carrying on the beef in the media but never putting her thoughts on wax, which is how these Rap Beefs usually work. So when Nicki finally responded on “Roman’s Revenge” which was released shortly before her “Pink Friday” album dropped, and a radio interview with Angie Martinez showed Nicki being logical, intelligent and even still paying respects to Kim. Than Kim desperately put together a lackluster response “Black Friday” which showed exactly why Nicki has taken her spot, her flow and delivery were boring and the lyrics weren’t very clever at all. And even worse, most of the things Kim uses to call Nicki out apply to her and her early career (the “buffoon” remarks, and the idea that Nicki slept her way to the top when we all know that’s Kim’s story) or were flat out delusional (“still running the game” — REALLY????). In the end “Pink Friday” is doing better than any Kim album already, and Nicki’s more mature approach to this “beef” will make her the winner in the long run.

Picking the #1 album was difficult for me this year, and even as this is posted I’ll probably still have second thoughts about it. It’s definitely between two Hip Hop albums Drake’s “Thank Me Later” and Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”.

Drake “Thank Me Later”
Why it deserves the #1 spot: Drake’s album is perfectly cohesive, the tone and the style of each song blends effortlessly into the next. Even in concept the album tells the story of a man with dreams and watching his dreams come true. The ease at which he transitions from rapping to singing is also new and different and feels totally natural. And it also feels a little more relate-able to the listeners, and another genius thing each and every song has a verse for hardcore Hip Hop fans and one for his female listeners. A clever, complex, carefree album.
Why it should be #2:The drawback to giving this the #1 spot is, even though it takes a few risks with extended verses and the overall ambient feel of the album, it’s still very much a mainstream accessible album (thus the pandering to different sets of fans mentioned above).

Kanye West “My Beautiful Dark and Twisted Fantasy”
Why it deserves the #1 spot: “My Beautiful Dark and Twisted Fantasy” is definitely Kanye’s peak thus far, and he’s been a genius his whole career. The albums strength is that it embodies the different styles Kanye has mastered on his previous four albums, but elevates them and mixes them with classic instrumentation and sounds of rock, alternative, hip hop and R&B. Because of all the mixing the album could have gone terribly wrong, but it manages to never sound forced or overproduced. It just all feels perfect, and is truly a Hip Hop masterpiece because of all the elements working perfectly together.
Why it should be #2:There’s honestly a lot of clever word play here and he tackles some really deep and important issues. However the main selling point of Drake’s album is that it was cohesive in theme, it felt like a story. Kanye’s “Dark and Twisted Fantasy” while very cohesive as far as the musical arrangements and feel, is not so much cohesive in theme, there’s really no story there just random thoughts.Which I suppose is what a “Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” would feel like.

I’m going to give the #1 , pretty predictably since it’s the best reviewed album of the year, to Kanye. Both albums feel really classic, and though I instantly fell in love with “Thank Me Later” and still love it to this day, Kanye feels more like a piece of art, like his short video for “Power”, so much thought and work and creativity went into it feels more like a Masterpiece.

1. Ke$ha
She also gets my > > I Was Wrong Award because last year, when I hadn’t even heard “Tik Tok” in it’s entirety, I predicted the minimal talents of Ke$ha would wear thin once that song had faded out. Dam I was wrong, not that she became a real force to be reckoned with in the industry (her album releases and re-releases continue to flop — and her live performances are sub par to put it nicely), but she was able to get a few more hits using her auto-tuned, generic yet catchy songs. She became my #1 Guilty Pleasure late in the year, even though most of her songs sound the same and talk about the same stuff, who can deny her singles “Take it Off” “Your Love is My Drug” or “We R Who We R”. You hear her songs once and somehow they are stuck in your head. Still, other than catchy hooks and Whiskey references, Ke$ha doesn’t offer much else so we’ll have to see how things turn for her in 2011.

1. “Bed Intruder”
I don’t think anybody can watch this clip without having “Hide Ya Kids, Hide Ya Wife” or “run and tell dat Homeboy” stuck in their head afterwards. A shameful news clip is remixed into one of the most viewed videos, you wanna say SMH, but than you find yourself singing along and clapping to “We Gon Find You!”

1. Kanye West
By now, we all know that Kanye West is the most outspoken celebrity of late. And sometimes his outbursts were justified and Needed, but this year coming off his hiatus after the VMA controversy it seems that he didn’t learn a thing. He opened up a Twitter account and spouted random thoughts about clothing, traveling and Justin Bieber all leading up to the release of the best reviewed album of the year. And than things just got out of hand, firstly him feeling sorry for his 2005 comments about President Bush (the commander in chiefs apathy during a crisis and a controversy on a cable Awards show are NOT the same thing at all), than the Matt Lauer bust up. He now just comes off as a man who can never be happy about anything unless things are going 100% his way.
Kanye PLEASE STFU!!!! better yet, just put out music and don’t do any publicity. Let us appreciate the genius of your music without having your dickhead soundbytes to remind us what you’re really like.

> > Most OVERRATED Artist and Album of the Year

1. Eminem “Recovery”
Look, there’s no denying that Eminem can literally give us his worst and it’ll be better than most other rappers. He’s naturally gifted with a great flow and clever lyricism with his music, my only problem is he’s always the SAME Eminem. It never feels like he tries to do anything different, and really why should he when every time he drops an album he gets massive sales. This year, with the help of Rihanna and probably his biggest Pop hit “Love the Way You Lie”, he’s being hailed for an album that is really lackluster and very undeserving.

2. Bruno Mars “Doo Wops and Hooligans”
3. Monica “Still Standing”

> > Most OVERRATED Single of the Year

1. Bruno Mars “Just the Way You Are”
2. Eminem featuring Rihanna “Love the Way You Lie”
3. Far East Movement “Like a G6”

Jennifer Lopez becoming a judge on “American Idol”
The new judging line up of “American Idol” was a pretty big deal this year, and Jennifer Lopez (who I called out last year) jumped on it. Securing a spot as one of the “esteemed” judging panel for 2011’s “American Idol” should prove well for her, she’s still a big star and much more so than Paula Abdul when she joined the first season of the show. If she plays her cards right, this could help any future film or music projects for her. The jury is still out on if people will watch without Simon, but I’m sure most are at least intrigued by the new judging

> > Worst Career Move

Chris Brown having a Twitter account
Chris has been hustling this year, trying to get his career back on track. Working on mixtapes and releasing singles and videos left and right even though he has no new album to promote. It’s been working, but it seems everytime anybody mentions his “incident” two years ago, he turns into a little child instead of doing the mature thing and not responding. His fans don’t seem to mind, but it’s not doing him any good in the mainstream eye which is who he needs to get back on his team the most.

> > COLOSSAL Flop of the Year

1. Christina Aguilera“Bionic”

Wow! From every angle you look at it, Christina Aguilera’s “Bionic” has to be the biggest flop the pop world has seen in years. And really who is to blame, well let’s start with the label RCA. The album feels like one half what Christina actually wanted the sound to be (experimental Indie/Electro on “Elastic Love” and the title track among a few others) and what the label wanted it to be for chart dominance (the dated sounding single “Not Myself Tonight” and annoying pop fodder “I Hate Boys” for example). Those two different directions made the album uneven, but there are a lot of successful albums that are even worse. A lot of her fans blame Perez Hilton for constantly saying her new look was similar to Lady GaGa’s, which in a lot of aspects (especially the “Not Myself Tonight” music video) was true — but acts like Beyonce, Usher and Nicki Minaj get called out for copying other artists and it didn’t hurt their sales. Who’s next to blame, well the artist herself. From her icy and impersonal interviews, to her classless, over-sung (and partially lipped) MTV Movie Award performance she just didn’t seem to make any smart decisions in the promotion. The final result was an album that fell out of the Billboard 200 within months, and a first single that couldn’t even pass the Top 20 mark with her follow up singles lingering in the bottom half of the Hot 100 (if at all).
Christina did end the year on a bit of a high note. Her acting debut “Burlesque” wasn’t a box office smash, but wasn’t a complete Flop and it ended up getting a few Golden Globe nominations, including one for a song she wrote for the soundtrack. Here’s hoping Christina follows up quickly and makes some new and unique decisions
about her music and promotion.

2. Ciara

Ciara also gets the > >You Poor Thing Award because she was the Flop of the Year last year. When she released her new “promo single” “You Got Me (Basic Instincts)” it seemed like she was on the right track because she was singing about what she did wrong in the previous era. Trying to be someone she’s not, and she promised to go back to her roots with the next album. Her single and video “Ride” were a step in the right direction, but than things started taking a down turn. BET banned her video (more on that later), and her album was pushed back several times while her songs were being leaked left and right (just like with the Fantasy Ride album). By the time her album did come out of nowhere in December with no promotion, it debuted at #43 with only around 30, 000 copies sold. OUCH!!!!
Her problem is the people behind her, to me it feels like somebody at her label is really out to ruin her career and are sabotaging her at every point. She needs to get away from those people and keep on grinding because she’s really capable of being a long lasting R&B artist, but after a while she might just stop trying. Poor Thing.

> > Trends that need to END!

1. The Dance Pop trend.
Please, it’s been the popular sound for too many years and now it’s just allowing people to be lazy. In both Production, and Lyrics. Compared to true dance music, the tracks are normally a diluted and repetitive generic version of Dance. And lyrically we’ve gotten to a place where we accept a song titled “Blah Blah Blah”. We need something new, and I have a feeling a more Island style is set to take over.

2. Re-Releases.

What used to be a clever marketing tool, is now clearly the proof that we are in a Singles oriented industry and the label heads don’t really care about whole albums. Artists might as well just follow Robyn’s idea of putting out short EP’s every few months, because aside from a few exceptions a Re-Release sort of cheapens the idea of putting together a cohesive full album, when in a few months your just going to scrap together some filler for a Re-Release only intended to promote 1 or 2 new songs.

3. Product Placement in Music Videos.
I understand artists nowadays have to get their money in unique ways, but too many Pop stars this year took the fun out of their videos by making them look too much like commercials. Ke$ha’s “We R Wo We R”, Lady GaGa’s “Telephone” and “Bad Romance” videos, and Christina Aguilera’s “Not Myself Tonight” stand out as big abusers of this crime. Hopefully in 2011 artists can at least find more clever ways of incorporating the products in their videos.

>As much as it pains me to acknowledge it, Eminem will almost definitely be the Grammy leader when nominations are announced later today. Although his recent album “Recovery” is still a sub par outing, Eminem had a huge hit this year with Rihanna that was still on Grammy voters minds when submitting nomination choices a few weeks ago.

A lot has been made about the fact that he’s never won Album of the Year in the media, and the fact that he’s been very present this year with feature work and his album selling as consistently well as his previous outings will assure him multiple nominations (even though his album was garbage, but hey that’s just my opinion). He’ll be a lock for Album of the Year as well as Record and Song of the Year for “Love the Way You Lie” with Rihanna, and he’ll dominate the Hip Hop categories.

Other than Eminem, the other leading nominees will most likely come with a lot of surprises. I’m honestly not as confident with my predictions this year as in previous years, but there are some artists that made such a big impact this year I couldn’t imagine them being left out. And given last years nominees, the popular acts and best sellers will probably be the most mentioned when it comes to nominations.

Judging by that, I have an instinct that this year may be a big year for Hip Hop in the Big 4 categories (Album, Record, Song and New Artist of the Year). Eminem’s “Recovery” is a lock for Album of the Year, but I also wouldn’t count out eligible albums by Drake (“Thank Me Later”) and Jay-Z (“The Blueprint 3”).

Jay’s album came out last year right after the cut off, but the album received critical praise and ended up having three really big mainstream singles. His only problem is since the album was released so long ago, it might be forgotten. Even if he doesn’t get that big nomination for the album, I could see “Empire State of Mind” with Alicia Keys up for Record and/or Song of the Year.

Drake was the new artist with the biggest hype last year, and even though he didn’t have his album out he was up for three awards, so it seems obvious that he will be back again this year, and since his album was a steady seller it wouldn’t be surprising to see him in Album of the Year. He seems like a shoe-in for New Artist of the year however (and will probably win).

B.O.B. will most likely be up for New Artist of the Year as well, and even though his album might not be up for the top prize, his single “Airplanes” was so massive it’s sure to be competing for Record or Song of the Year (possibly both).

Eminem, Drake, Jay-Z and B.O.B. are sure to be favorites in the Hip Hop categories, and I believe they will probably be competing with themselves in certain categories. B.O.B. will probably get two nominations for Rap/Sung Collaboration for both “Airplanes” and “Nothing On You” with Bruno Mars. Same for Jay-Z who should find “Empire State of Mind” and “Young Forever” with Mr Hudson competing against each other. Drake’s “Over” and “Miss Me” will surely be up for nods. Also expect to see Ludacris, Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, and Nicki Minaj whose feature work should snag her a few nods, as well as her hit single “Your Love”.

As far as Pop music goes, Katy Perry will probably come out with a bunch of nominations. Her album “Teenage Dream”, which is better than some of the Album of the Year nominees of last year, will probably miss out in that category. However her name should pop up in most of the Big 4 categories, as the albums title track is surely deserved of Song and Record of the Year nominations as well as Pop Vocal Performance, Female. The album should get a Pop Album nomination, and depending on how her label plays it “California Gurls” with Snoop Dogg could be up for Dance Recording or Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

Lady GaGa was one of the nomination leaders last year, and expect her to be up for alot this year for her singles and videos from “The Fame Monster” EP. That release is only 8 songs long, and it’s doubtful it will be up for Album of the Year. However “Bad Romance” is sure to be up for Record or Song of the Year, as well as Female Pop Vocal and Dance Recording. Her and Grammy favorite Beyonce‘s collaboration “Telephone” will probably Win Pop Collaboration. As far as Short Form Music Video, any and all of her three video releases (“Bad Romance”, “Telephone” and “Alejandro”) deserve a nomination.

In the Rock and Indie scene The Black Keys, MGMT and Vampire Weekend are buzzed about underground acts that were more successful this year on a mainstream level. All of their releases came out in the first quarter of the year and could be forgotten, but thanks to a little commercialization Black Keys and Vampire Weekend might be up for a few awards, they have songs that have recently gained mainstream success because of television advertisements.

However the Indie act of the year that is most likely to get the most nominations are Arcade Fire, whose third album “The Suburbs” was a critical and commercial success. The group has won a Grammy for Alternative Album for both of their previous outings, and now that they are more known on the mainstream level I expect them up for Album of the Year no question. As far as any other possible nominations, I’m not sure but they will probably all fall under the Alternative categories.

One last shoe-in for Top 4 nominations is country group Lady Antebellum. I’m not very familiar with them, but I know I have read their name A LOT this past year. They are obviously very popular, and very respected as their second album “Need You Now” has been met with a lot of positive critiques. Again, I’m not familiar with them, but I would imagine Album of the Year isn’t out of the question. And the title track, which rose to #2 on the Pop charts will be a contender for Record and Album of the Year. And the group will most likely dominate the Country categories, as Taylor Swift did last year.

And finally the Grammys always have a soft spot for legendary acts making a comeback, and though it wasn’t really a comeback in that sense Sade‘s “Soldier of Love” album single and video will easily compete in a few categories, including the Big 4. That album was released in January and has since lost a lot of steam, but it’s Sade who has won a Grammy for nearly every album released. They won’t be totally forgotten, but I doubt they’ll be nomination leaders.

Question marks on Drake and Jay-Z, Eminem might be too much Hip Hop for that category thus canceling those two (far superior albums) out. Also Sade is a question mark, because after the first single not much attention was paid to that album.

For Your Consideration:
I’ve been talking about the majorly successful artists who are sure to get nominated, however let’s shift things to the underrated outings that should be up for something this year.

Rihanna’s “Rated R” is a pop album on par with Janet Jackson’s “The Velvet Rope” which is a gift, but could be a curse at the Grammy’s. Janet’s 1997 album was met with the best critical praise in her career, but was ignored on Grammy night (only receiving a nomination for Short Form Video). Even though “Rated R” deserves a shot at Album of the Year, it’s doubtful she will snag it. However Rihanna will do well for herself this year, “Love the Way You Lie” alone will get her a few major nominations but also her big hit “Rude Boy” should be up for Female Pop Vocal and maybe Pop Single or they might even put her in the R&B race.

In R&B, Usher will most likely dominate as “Raymond v. Raymond” and it’s re-release “Versus” generated two big Pop singles and three pretty big R&B singles. However looking past the mainstream, hopefully Erykah Badu‘s “New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)” and controversial video and single “Window Seat” will be shown some love tonight. As well as Toni Braxton‘s “Pulse”, which was all but forgotten shortly after it was released despite being a very solid R&B album with one of the better R&B songs to come out in years “Hands Tied”. And though I’m not personally vouching for these releases, I could see Monica and Fantasia up for some awards. Though these outings were a bit lackluster for me, they were met with a lot of praise from R&B fans. And even though she’s hard to put in a box of just one Genre, and even though she’s more than likely going to be up for New Artist, Janelle Monae will hopefully be given her due as she put out one of the most original and creative albums of the year with “TheArchAndroid”.

Producer Danger Mouse might have too mellow of a sound to take notice to, but his collaboration with James Mercer of The Shins “Broken Bells” should be up for Album of the Year. It’s doubtful it will, but it deserves to, and if it doesn’t I hope to see them competing for multiple categories in the Alternative categories. Also Danger Mouse’s collaboration with Sparklehorse might be a topic of debate, it was leaked digitally last year but was released officially this year with several guest artists from different generations of Rock and Alternative music. Even if that album isn’t nominated for anything, his output alone should get him a nomination for Producer of the Year. Another alternative group that I think are more than deserving of some mentions are Surfer Blood whose “Astro Coast” was one of the most solid albums released this year. They aren’t popular hardly at all on a mainstream level, but hopefully enough hipsters voted and they could possibly break through.

Kelis and Robyn linked up for a tour this summer, and they should both be up for Grammy gold in the Dance and Electronic categories. Kelis’ “Flesh Tone” was a sharp departure for her, as it was a total dance album. And not a watered down pop version of Dance, it’s up there with some of the best and respected Dance albums of the past. Hopefully we’ll see her name in a few categories. Robyn released three EP’s this year (only two are eligible), and if that invalidates her from any album categories, her two singles “Dancing on my Own” and “Hang with Me” are miles better than the radio staples I expect to see up for Dance Recording (that really don’t deserve to be there). Another Electronic act that got a lot of praise for his recent release was LCD Soundsystem. “This is Happening” got loads of critical praise, and since he’s been nominated three times in the past, I’m sure he’ll get a nomination this year. As well as Gorillaz, who’s album “Plastic Beach” isn’t necessarily one of my favorites of the year but deserves to compete, and they should also be up for Short Form Video for “Stylo”.

And Big Boi, his first solo album “Sir Lucious Left Foot, The Son of Chico Dusty” came and went with little fanfare, but it’s a really solid album with some solid singles that should be up for multiple Hip Hop categories. The Roots could be singled out because of heavy competition in the Hip Hop categories for their album “How I Got Over”, but I expect to see their collaboration album with Grammy favorite John Legend “Wake Up!” possibly in the Traditional R&B Album category since it’s a celebration of classic soul songs, and a truly great album.

In the Pop field, I want to see Adam Lambert‘s “Whataya Want From Me” up for multiple categories (I would say it deserves Song of the Year, but it probably wasn’t a big enough hit to make it in that category), he should definitely win for Male Pop Vocal for this song however. And while Maroon 5‘s album wasn’t anything to write home about, their single “Misery” is fun, infectious and well produced, hopefully that one song (and the video) get a nod or two. And finally, also aided by the help of commercialization, Neon Trees‘ excellent “Animal” should be a favorite for Pop Vocal Duo or Group (unless their label puts them in Alternative or Rock — which doesn’t quite fit)

So there are my predictions, as I said earlier I’m not as confident about these predictions as years prior, but I think I’m on the right track. We’ll find out tonight. And than we’ll discuss the nominations and predict winners shortly after.

>Even though on my last post I spoke about how this years album releases have been lacking. Well three new releases that I wasn’t expecting much from have actually really surprised me (well, two of the three) and make 2010 seem like it might be a nice year in music after all. This is what I’d like to call my Atlanta Special Edition because not only are all of these artists from Atlanta, but they have all collaborated with each other on multiple occasions.

Usher‘s 6th studio album “Raymond v. Raymond” will be released March 30th, and I’m so proud to report that this one is worth the purchase. 2008’s “Here I Stand”, had Usher playing the “devoted husband and father” role and I think the album and it’s promotion suffered because of it. Not a terrible album by any means, but his live performances were severely lacking and his interviews became intolerable with him trying to convince everybody how much in Love with his new wife he was. And than just a few months after that album dropped it was announced that he was getting a divorce. This album starts off by making the point “there are three sides to every story. One side. The Other Side. and The Truth” and the rest of album seems to just point out the different sides and doesn’t really seem to deal with the truth. However that’s not a complaint, because pretty much everything about this album is great. Just on a production level, this is one of his best albums. The various producers ranging from Jim Jonsin to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis offer Usher tracks with so much depth and complexity. Even though the album sticks to what Usher is good at, R&B, there is a good bit of diversity on the album as far as it’s tracks. And even on the Dance/Pop’ish tracks it’s not just the typical and lazy repeated loop of a keyboard sequence, there’s always something new coming up with each minute on each song.
Lyrically it’s also very on point, as I keep listening and noticing clever lines and even some thought provoking ones. The albums BEST (yeah I said it!) track “Mars v. Venus” is a great example, where he uses space travel and astronomy terms to equate with sex and love. “Pro Lover” is another well-written track, you might miss the genius of the lyrics at first because the track is so fun and his vocal delivery is so creative, but listen to the lyrics on the second go round. Throughout the album, like I said before, he shows the different sides of what can make a marriage go south. And I definitely appreciate that he’s not blaming anybody, (well at least not on every track), he accepts his part and also acknowledges how the female in the relationship might feel. It’s a really well-rounded album lyrically.
And Vocally, Usher is on fire on this album. The lead in track “Monstar” almost doesn’t even sound like him, his vocals are way more relaxed and even conversational on this Disco inspired track. And even though “Foolin’ Around” plays like “Burn part Two”, his vocals actually save what might be considered a dated track. The difference from this album from the last album vocally is Usher seems to be a lot more present and determined to let his voice be the star even though he has A+ tracks to sing over. He plays with his voice in so many different ways, and truly shows that he does have some major talent outside of his dance skills.
I can’t wait to see some Live performances from him to show if he’s Really back, but this album is a winner. There’s really not a bad track on the album, and even if certain songs have things lacking, the amazing production lyrics or vocals save it from floundering.

Ludacris released his 7th album “Battle of the Sexes” on March 9th. And having been very disappointed in his last two albums I didn’t expect hardly anything from this one. Once a great force in the Hip Hop game, I had counted Ludacris out really. Upon listening to his new album though, I realized what was missing from the last two albums. FUN! Luda was always the rapper with the great skills, but the one that always made you laugh (in a good way) while listening to his rhymes. It seems like on the last two efforts “Release Therapy” and “Theater of the Mind”, he tried to get too serious and forgot what made him a star. So happy he returned to form with this effort because not only does it make for a solid album, but in a lot of ways made me love Hip Hop again. Having said that, the “Battle of the Sexes” theme isn’t very obvious throughout the album except for “B.O.T.S.”, if the idea was to show conflicting sides of this battle, he kind of failed because instead of it being about a Battle it’s more just talking about relationships in general. Even than, “Everybody Drunk” and “Party No Mo” don’t seem to fit at all, even though they are two of the better tracks. “How Low” and “My Chick Bad”, which are the two first singles, are two of his best songs because though they seem misogynistic based on the titles, he actually does celebrate women and doesn’t degrade them as hard as some other rappers even R&B singers (this is something I’ve always loved about Luda actually, he’s very pro-woman and definitely appreciates and celebrates them). He has his required sex songs with what seem to be required guest appearances by Trey Songz and Ne-Yo. (Speaking of, Ne-Yo’s collaboration “Tell me a Secret” is a great song… but the true star is Swizz Beatz for the very subtle but very original and creative drum track) Overall, it’s not his best album by a long shot but it’s a great return to form and just a Fun album.

Monica, on the other hand, has just released her 6th studio album “Still Standing” and Fun is definitely not a word you can use to describe this outing. If you can get past her and producer Missy Elliott taking a DUMP on two R&B Classics (“Silly” by Deneice Williams is turned into the awful “Everything to Me” and “Betcha She Don’t Love You” by Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King into “If You Were My Man”), what your left with is a pretty standard contemporary R&B album. With her singing about the standard R&B stuff… Love, Love Loss, Cheating, Breaking Up, etc etc. However I think the biggest problem with this album, and Monica’s entire discography the past 8 years, is that she takes herself a little too seriously. The albums title track proves this, where she paints herself out to be this artist with so much adversity and so much hate, when that’s never been the case. Monica has always been one of the more respected artists in the R&B game, and she’s been wealthy and successful since she was 14 years old. So lyrics like “been through the storm, had dirt on my name” and “Whatever don’t kill you make you stronger, well I must be the world’s strongest woman” don’t make much sense to me knowing her story. And I think this self-imposed importance really makes some tracks that might have been great a little dull. Her contemporary and one time Rival Brandy released an album full of generic Pop songs in 2008, but it was her voice and her energy that brought those songs up. Monica is just lacking something and it’s probably because she thinks she can’t have fun or she won’t be taken seriously. The very last two songs are winners though, the Jermaine Dupri produced ballad “Love All Over Me” and the Stargate produced “Believing In Me” are a lot better than you would think given just the titles, and her voice matches up nicely with the simple productions. Overall, not a very good album, and to be frank Monica hasn’t really progressed much and that’s probably another major problem I have with the album. It can very easily blend into her last two albums “After the Storm” and “The Makings of Me”, and to me that’s not a good thing.